Fig. 8.

Astrocyte bundles are highly malleable and resilient upon extraction from micro-columns. Astrocyte bundles extracted from hydrogel micro-columns demonstrate flexibility and durability while maintaining the bundled astrocytic cytoarchitecture as shown via immunocytochemistry (GFAP, red; DAPI, blue) and confocal microscopy. (A) An astrocytic bundle extracted from a 20 mm micro-column and adhered to a poly-L-lysine coated coverslip in a swirl pattern. (B) Higher magnification of representative region demonstrating maintenance of astrocyte somata and process alignment following physical manipulation of extracted astrocyte bundles. Scale bars: 100 μm. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)